Discourse that allows us to express a wide range of ideas, opinions, and analysis that can be used as an opportunity to critically examine and observe what our experience means to us beyond the given social/cultural contexts and norms that are provided us.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

An American Tradition Continues--Thanks to Geraldine Ferraro

The brazen infantile behavior displayed by Ferraro is what you ALWAYS get from racists (or people who make racist remarks and/or engage in racist actions) in a truly racist society like the 'United Hates'. This behavior is characterized and informed by the following telltale, even highly predictable signs:

Pathological lying, willful distortions of fact, bad faith, blatant irrationality masquerading as sound logic, massive insecurity, fear-mongering, insults, contempt, malice, condescension, posturing, self-pity, fake innocence, indifference to others, victimizers pretending to be victims, ridicule, and ignorance. Usually pervasive violence is not far behind as well. These attitudes and values are what has allowed and continues to allow millions of white Americans to defend and justify 250 years of chattel slavery and another 145 years of massive racial discrimination, oppression, segregation, disfranchisement, profiling and surveillance, exploitation, murder, sexual and psychological abuse, social terror, and theft.

White racists were like this in the 18th century. They were like this in the 19th century. They were like this in the 20th century. And they haven't changed in the 21st century. Of course just like in previous centuries when racists categorically refused to take intellectual, moral, social, and ethical responsibility for their racism, racists today continue that sordid and murderous tradition. This is the historical legacy that Ms. Ferraro has inherited and that she proudly continues to advance today. Is she now going to admit that simple fact and critically examine herself and her motives in that light? Of course not. But if there's one thing that racists almost NEVER DO under any circumstances whatsoever--especially when prompted to do so by an inferior--er, excuse me, I mean "black person", and that is to simply admit they are WRONG. Because if they did that they could then begin to seriously question and dismantle the gigantic structure of racism itself. However, how could a racist live without their racism? It's unthinkable, isn't it?

Geraldine Ferraro stepped down from Hillary Clinton's national finance committee yesterday, but not before a controversy over remarks she made about Barack Obama exposed the politics of race and gender in the Democratic presidential race.

'It was a statement of fact,'Ferraro said over her remarksthat suggested Obama wouldn't be in the lead if he were not black.

Apology, and a defense

Ferraro told CNN that she was not asked by the Clinton campaign to make the move, but decided it would be best.

In a letter obtained by CNN, Ferraro wrote Clinton: "I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen."

Earlier yesterday, the 1984 vice presidential nominee apologized to those who thought it racially insensitive for her to suggest that Obama wouldn't be the Democratic front-runner if he were not black. But she then declared: "It wasn't a racist comment. It was a statement of fact."

On ABC's "Good Morning America," she also accused the Obama campaign of twisting her words, saying that "every time" someone makes a negative comment about Obama they are accused of racism.

Tuesday night, Ferraro had even stronger words about Obama's camp for the Daily Breeze, the newspaper in Torrance, Calif., whose interview with her last week started the controversy. "Racism works in two different directions," she said. "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

The Obama campaign had called on Clinton, who had distanced herself from Ferraro's comments and called them "regrettable," to remove Ferraro from her finance committee.

Before Ferraro's resignation, Obama admonished her yesterday, saying that if someone in his campaign had suggested that Clinton "is where she is only because she is a woman," people would "take great offense, and rightly so."

"Part of what I think Geraldine Ferraro is doing, and I respect the fact that she was a trailblazer, is to participate in the kind of slice-and-dice politics that's about race and about gender. . . That's what Americans are tired of because they recognize that when we divide ourselves in that way we can't solve problems," Obama said on NBC's "Today" show.

At an afternoon news conference in Chicago, Obama, who would become the first black president if elected, said he did not believe that the Clinton campaign was deliberately stirring racial divisions or that Ferraro's comments were racist.

"I think that her comments were ridiculous. I think they were wrongheaded," he said. "The notion that it is a great advantage to me to be an African-American named Barack Obama and pursue the presidency, I think, is not a view that has been commonly shared by the general public."

The Illinois senator also expressed frustration that racial issues keep arising, asserting that his primary victories across the country have proven he can draw support from all races and regions. "We keep on thinking we've dispelled this," he said. "And it keeps on getting raised once again."

Obama said he believes that the vast majority of voters will base their decisions on substantive issues. "I have absolute confidence that if I'm doing my job, if I'm delivering my message, then there are very few voters out there that I can't win," he said. "If I'm not winning them over, then it's my fault."

The controversy comes as the Democratic electorate appears more racially polarized. Obama won the support of more than 90 percent of black voters in Mississippi on Tuesday, while Clinton won about three-fourths of white voters, according to exit polls.

Before Ferraro's resignation, the Clinton campaign stoked the fight a little more, buttressing Ferraro's comments that Clinton has been treated unfairly as a female candidate by highlighting remarks by an Obama adviser last month.

Retired Air Force General Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak told the Los Angeles Times that Obama has "real gravitas" and "doesn't go on television and have crying fits," an apparent reference to Clinton's much-publicized emotional moment on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.

The Obama campaign had immediately repudiated the comments, and McPeak quickly said he had "high regard" for Clinton. But the Clinton camp pointed out that he is front and center in vouching for Obama's national security credentials, including a news conference yesterday.

McPeak said Obama had the right judgment and steady temperament to be commander in chief, praising him for opposing a "dumb war" in Iraq and calling him "No-shock Barack" and "No-drama Obama."

Malcolm X (1925-1965)

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against."

W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963)

"There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. "

James Baldwin (1924-1987)

"Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society."

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008)

"A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization."

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

"There's no other purpose, so far as I'm concerned, for us except to reflect the times, the situations around us and the things we're able to say through our art, the things that millions of people can't say. I think that's the function of an artist and, of course, those of us who are lucky leave a legacy so that when we're dead, we also live on. That's people like Billie Holiday and I hope that I will be that lucky, but meanwhile, the function, so far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times, whatever that might be."

Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973)

"Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone's head. They are fighting to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children ....Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories..." .

Angela Davis (b. 1944)

"The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom to starve?”

Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

“Jazz is the freest musical expression we have yet seen. To me, then, jazz means simply freedom of musical speech! And it is precisely because of this freedom that so many varied forms of jazz exist. The important thing to remember, however, is that not one of these forms represents jazz by itself. Jazz simply means the freedom to have many forms.”

Amiri Baraka (1934-2014)

"Thought is more important than art. To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is."

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” --August 3, 1857

Cecil Taylor (b. 1929)

“Musical categories don’t mean anything unless we talk about the actual specific acts that people go through to make music, how one speaks, dances, dresses, moves, thinks, makes love...all these things. We begin with a sound and then say, what is the function of that sound, what is determining the procedures of that sound? Then we can talk about how it motivates or regenerates itself, and that’s where we have tradition.”

Ella Baker (1903-1986)

"Strong people don't need strong leaders"

Paul Robeson (1898-1976)

"The artist must take sides, He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery, I had no alternative"

John Coltrane (1926-1967)

"I want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good."

Miles Davis (1926-1991)

"Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around."

C.L.R. James (1901-1989)

"All development takes place by means of self-movement, not organization by external forces. It is within the organism itself (i.e. within the society) that there must be realized new motives, new possibilities."

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)

"Now, political education means opening minds, awakening them, and allowing the birth of their intelligence as [Aime] Cesaire said, it is 'to invent souls.' To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them."

Edward Said (1935-2003)

“I take criticism so seriously as to believe that, even in the midst of a battle in which one is unmistakably on one side against another, there should be criticism, because there must be critical consciousness if there are to be issues, problems, values, even lives to be fought for."

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)

“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned. There must be pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.”

Susan Sontag (1933-2004)

"Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not﻿ waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager."

Editor's Bio

Kofi Natambu, editor of The Panopticon Review, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He is the author of a biography MALCOLM X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: THE MELODY NEVER STOPS (Past Tents Press) and INTERVALS (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of SOLID GROUND: A NEW WORLD JOURNAL, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.